Role of niche innovation in the bioeconomy transition in The Netherlands

As the climate crisis looms in, governments have responded with several agreements to lower their carbon emissions and decouple their economic growth from the fossil industry. This transition to a cleaner economy has spurred innovations in several dimensions to find green alternatives to the depleting resources. The Dutch government has then adopted the circular economy model and set ambitious goals to reach full circularity by 2050, which promotes the exploration for bio alternatives as substitute for non-renewables. Therefore, systemic changes are required in sociotechnical systems to allow radical innovation to shift to a bioeconomy and disassociate the current system from the fossil industry. To realize this, new value chains were created across the lifecycle of products and new networks were built to unite different agents across industries. While this transition is characterized by complexity and uncertainty, a single agent cannot take the risk of breaking away from the business as usual and adopt an innovative model. As a result, regional networks were created as in the Circular Biobased Delta in South Holland, which implemented the triple-helix model to steer biobased innovations. This regional cooperation combines local governments, provinces, industries, and knowledge institutions across the region and beyond working on providing a protective space for biobased innovations that reduces the carbon emissions. Regardless of these ambitious targets and established ecosystem, the ongoing government effort in transiting to bioeconomy were considered locked in a predevelopment stage and, characterized by vested interests from top-sector companies to slowdown radical changes and maintain a locked-in economy. These intrinsic features of the Dutch economy can be ascribed to several factors that affect the development of biobased innovation.

This research aims at empirically explaining the impact of the factors affecting the development of biobased innovation within the Circular Biobased Delta on the Dutch bioeconomy transition. By making use of Transition Management, and Strategic Niche Management theories, it attempts to explore the applicability of this framework on small- scale innovations led by entrepreneurs for the bioeconomy transition. For this reason, one innovative material aiming at creating radical changes in the asphalt industry and developed within the CBBD was selected as the case study. Lignin-based asphalt or Bioasphalt is an innovative technology seeking to displace the bitumen-based binders in asphalt with the bio binder, lignin.

Accordingly, the research strategy is designed as a deductive case study by identifying the factors through the MLP-SNM literature as a theoretical framework to guide and map the empirical factors. Eleven interviews with key actors in the case study (Bioasphalt) network were conducted to collect the required data related to these factors, their plans and strategies for developing the technology, their interdependencies along with the relationships they have established, and their motivations. Secondary data was also used to triangulate the findings while coding the data with Atlas.ti to analyze and filter the information.

Theoretically, the analysis has confirmed the applicability of the MLP-SNM framework for use in understanding the factors affecting the development of biobased niche innovation and the impact on the bioeconomy, albeit its shortcomings. These weaknesses in the framework stem from its intrinsic static features and inability to examine the dynamics of the innovation process. For this reason, making use of the transition broker literature assisted in forming a sufficient analysis of the case study, while adding quantitative indicators like the Technological Readiness Level may also improve the assessment of phase changes in this framework.

Furthermore, the findings sided with the literature criticizing the slow development of the Dutch bioeconomy ascribed to eleven factors affecting the biobased innovation development. The urgency factor in the Dutch circular economy plans, and the environmental assessment indicators are among the factors that are negatively affecting the biobased innovation and derailing its development. Other nine factors are also identified in this research that, when taken into consideration can assist not only policymakers but also actors in the bioeconomy to accelerate the development of radical innovation.

On a macro level, a clear definition and positioning of the bioeconomy in the Dutch Circular Economy strategy along with integral implementation plans may further endorse biobased innovation. While on micro level, creating a robust and broad network around the innovation with specific goals and shared vision will allow for its rapid market penetration.